How Do You Feel About This?

To most collectors like me, the coin is relatively unimportant...within reason. The stamp is what I'm looking at, so don't pay a lot of attention to the coin type or grade. To me the F/E Cent is beautiful, as is the condition of the counterstamp, but I'd never pay $355 for it. While it's a unique stamp, it's not valuable in itself as the maker is unidentified. I think whoever bought the piece was more attracted to the coin...and slab...rather than the name on it.

Bruce

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

How do I "feel" about it?

Well, it goes against EVERYTHING that the TPG's have prided themselves on since their inception.

As such, it sickens me to no end that NGC would simply toss aside their integrity simply because a "countermark" was well placed.

Would this open the door for some enterprising and well known dealer to start "countermarking" Silver and Gold Eagles?

How far will the TPG's have to sink before people start bailing out all together?

 

But a collector looking for a nice MS coin can't see the condition of the coin and DOES need a TPG to say it is MS in order to appreciate it?

 

I love counterstamps but I am a bit suspicious of slabs (or at least the frenzy to get everything slabbed), so I will leave the ethical issues regarding the label to others. I do know that for some counterstamps the coin is essentially transformed into a new coin/token with the added counterstamp, so that blurs the issue a bit. As for where the TPGs draw the line, I think there is already a lot of inconsistency in various areas of the whole process.

I do not lament that an MS62 FE cent is "defaced". It was worth one cent when it happened and it is very likely that this particular coin exists today in such high grade precisely because of the counterstamp. Until recent decades counterstamps were considered damage, so one has to wonder why this one was preserved in new condition. Perhaps it was a memento retained by the "issuer"?

 

Counterstamps ARE damage...intentional damage...just like the dime struck on a nail...same as damage from a coinstar machine.

 

I agree, Jeff. As a rule these coins were stamped when they were simply worth face value. If a modern coin were stamped, say a very common state quarter, most would have no problem with it because it's only worth face, and always will be. Likewise with this one. It was seen only as a one cent coin with no thought that 150 years later it would become rare and quite valuable.

Now, if someone today counterstamped a Bust Dollar, I'd have a huge problem with that.

Bruce

 

As @19Lyds said, IMO it lowers the integrity of NGC, the counterstamp is damage and should have been marked as such...just as they (NGC) would not straight grade a damaged/graffitied Morgan. Best to all.